My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a renaissance woman working full time to live, to love, to learn, to be useful, and to be interesting.

May 27, 2014

Oaxaca and Monte Albán

Duke and I are on day 10 of our Spring 2014 road trip. Today was the first day of no driving. We had a wonderful breakfast at our B&B in Oaxaca. The other people staying here are a young couple from Houston who flew down for five days in Oaxaca. They were going horse back riding today.

We headed to Monte Albán. Monte Albán is the Zapotec capital on a flattened mountain top near Oaxaca. It was first settled in about 500 BC. The flattened mountain top has a 360 degree view and the enormous grand plaza has a large collection of ancient buildings. We hiked around the site and then looked through the museum. It was interesting to learn that the first writing in the Americas was probably here.

We took a local bus up and back. The bus picked us up and dropped us off near several chocolate stores and markets. The smell of chocolate in the air was enticing so we stopped for a hot chocolate with bread and a tamal.

Then we walked through the indoor market. First there were lots of lunch counters then stalls for vegetables, spices, poultry, fish and finally we walked through a smokey area where the meat was laid out on display and if you picked some they would cook it over the charcoal fire right next to the display. There were probably 15 displays and fires.

Tonight it was raining again when we headed out for dinner. We ate near our B&B and then wenet backup to the roof top area to enjoy watching the rain and the fire and drink some Mazcal. It was a great day!